Conservation Agriculture
Latah SWCD works with landowners and producers in Latah County to improve long-term soil productivity while providing voluntary opportunities for long-term preservation of working agricultural lands. Our work reflects the needs of producers and landowners in Latah County. We want to hear from you.
Learn more about various Conservation Practices below
Conservation Practices
Biochar
Biochar is a carbon rich material obtained through partial combustion of biomass, typically cropped residues, manure, or forest slag. Biochar can be applied as a soil amendment to raise soil pH, reduce nitrogen leaching, and increase water holding capacity. It can also be incorporated into soil to increase carbon sequestration.
Benefits include:
• Buffer soil pH with associated nutrient availability benefits.
• Biochar contains some mineral nutrients in addition to carbon
• It has a high cation exchange capacity
• It can improve soil structure
• It can absorb soil contaminants
• It increases soil moisture retention, potentially minimizing leaching losses and possibly increasing crop yields
Conservation Crop Rotation
Establish a Resource Conserving Crop Rotation. Rotation must include at least one resource conserving crop as determined for Idaho in a minimum three-year crop rotation. The crop rotation is designed to either increase soil carbon and/or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Benefits include:
• Reduction of soil erosion
• Improves soil health and organic matter
• Reduces weed, disease, and pest pressure
• Improves filtration and soil moisture efficiency
• Improves soil aggregation depending on specific rotation
Cover Cropping
A seasonal/annual vegetative cover that is not harvested, baled, or sold as a specific commodity.
Benefits include:
• Reduction of soil erosion
• Improve soil health
• Increase soil organic matter
• Reduce off-site losses and availability of easily transported nutrients
• Suppress excessive weed pressures and break pest cycles
• Improve infiltration and soil moisture efficiency
• Minimize soil compaction
Grazing
Grazing cattle on private lands with cover crops, forage vegetation, and/or crop stubble to achieve specific ecological, economic, and management objectives, including improving soil carbon and potentially reducing inorganic fertilizer.
Benefits include:
• Improves or maintains species composition, structure, and vigor of plant communities
• Maintains or improves forage quality and quantity for grazing animals' health, limiting total time from birth to finish reducing the amount of methane emitted over the animal's life
• Improves or maintains surface and subsurface water quality
• Supports riparian and watershed function
• Reduces soil erosion and supports soil health
• Enhances food and cover for wildlife
• Manages fine fuel loads
• Provides potential additional income for producers adopting cover crops or other crops that cannot be harvested for income.
Interseeding
Interseeding is the practice of planting a second crop with a primary cash crop. The practice increases plant diversity and creates beneficial interactions or services such as nutrients for the primary cash crops.
Interseeding legumes: direct seeding legumes into a primary cash crop, either at the planting of the 1st crop or later (after establishment). Legumes are specified for their ability to fix nitrogen, potentially reducing need for applied inorganic nitrogen.
Relay cropping: a mix cropping or interseeding practice in which the second-planted crop (“relay crop”) is planted into an established primary cash crop in a manner that allows separate agronomic maintenance and harvest of each of the crops unless otherwise defined in the Crop Provisions (e.g., planting legumes/cover crops into a small grain field before harvesting small grains).
Companion planting: planting different crops in proximity to provide ground cover and weed control for the slow-growing crop (e.g., oat-alfalfa).
Other approaches to intercropping can be considered if they have the potential to reduce GHG emissions based on COMET-farm.
Benefits include:
• Provides a source of N to allow reductions in applied N fertilizer
• Improves cropping system diversity
• Uses resources (e.g., light, water, and nutrients) more efficiently than monocropping
• May reduce insect pressure
• Potentially harvestable with the main crop for unique marketing opportunities (e.g., mixed grain for animal feed and soups and potentially high-protein pasta)
Nutrient Management
Nutrient management is a strategy employed to match the amount and timing of nutrient applications to the temporal and spatial needs of a crop.
Benefits include:
• Optimizing fertilizer efficiency and crop yields
• Minimize agriculturally based nonpoint source pollution to surface and groundwater
• Minimize legacy effects to soil health including soil acidification
• Reduces input costs to a grower
• Reduces N2O emissions
Compost and Manure Application
Compost and manure are carbon-based amendments derived from animal byproducts with or without plant materials. Compost is a product created through the controlled aerobic, biological decomposition of plant and animal materials. Manure can also be composed of both plant and animal materials that have not been managed for biological decomposition (e.g. fresh scraped manure or stockpiled manure). Both products have plant-available nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, that need to be accounted for in a nutrient management plan.
Benefits include:
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Supplies nutrients to plants and microbes in addition to carbon
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Reduce soil bulk density
Reduced and No Tillage
No Tillage from More Intensive Tillage includes seeding directly into or through previous crop residue without any other mechanical soil preparation and managing residues on the soil surface year-round.
Reduced Tillage from Conventional Tillage limits soil-disturbance by modifying methods to those that limit inversion tillage operations such as replacing moldboard plowing and harrowing with chisel or similar implement.
Benefits for No Tillage and Reduced Tillage include:
• Reduces erosion and off-site losses
• Improve soil health and organic matter
• Reduce off-site losses and availability of easily transported nutrients
• Reduces pest pressure
• Reduces expenses associated with tillage operations
Additional Resources
Resource Guides
Cultivating Your Business: A Guide for Small and Direct Marketing Farms in Idaho
University of Idaho Extension and the Idaho Cultivating Success Sustainable Small Farms Education Program created this guide for beginner farmers. Order or access online version here or come by our office for a copy.
Green Cover Soil Health Resource Guide
The 10th addition of the Soil Health Resource Guide is available online and at our office.
This guide offers a wide range of soil health information from researchers, innovators, and regenerative practitioners.
Podcasts
On Farm Trials by Carol McFarland
Palouse Pulse by the Palouse Conservation District
Wheat Beat Podcast by Washington State University